WSBK: 2010 Monza results

Historic firsts and worsts made in Monza

Max Biaggi took the double, BMW earned its first podium while Ducati was held off the rostrum at the Monza round of the World Superbike Championship.

Biaggi started in pole position for the first time in his WSBK career, setting the all-time fastest top speed in WSBK history in the process with a record 205.2 mph. Biaggi carried that momentum into the two races to score two victories for Aprilia Alitalia in front of a supportive Italian crowd of 115,000.

Race One started with Biaggi taking the early lead with several riders on his tail including Suzuki Alstare Leon Haslam, Ducati Xerox’ Michel Fabrizio and the Yamaha Sterilgarda duo of James Toseland and Cal Crutchlow.

Biaggi held the lead for most of the race except for a short stretch where Haslam moved ahead. The championship points leader wasn’t able to hold the pace however, eventually being overtaken by Biaggi and the two Yamahas. The four front-runners all crossed the line within a second of each other with Toseland edging Crutchlow for second and Haslam missing the podium.

“That was a special result, because it is special to win at Monza and because this is a special track with a very high top speed,” says Biaggi. “We worked very hard for this race weekend so it was a perfect performance by all the team. The Yamaha guys running together means they could be quicker than me in the final lap but we held it together and took our first win here at Monza.”

Race Two began with a first-turn crash that took out Toseland, Hannspree Ten Kate Honda’s Jonathon Rea and BMW’s Ruben Xaus. Toseland was taken to hospital for a suspected concussion, while Rea suffered a sprained ankle. Xaus was able to escape unharmed in the crash.

Back at the front, it was BIaggi once again controlling the pace followed BMW’s Troy Corser, Haslam, Crutchlow and Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes. As he did in the first race, Haslam briefly took the lead before losing it to Biaggi again. A short while later, Haslam had a scare and was nearly unseated but managed to hang on.

“I had a really big ‘moment’ in race two and was way out of the saddle twice in the space of a fraction of a second. Somehow I stayed on the bike, but it was a very close thing!” says Haslam.

The hiccup left only Biaggi well out in front with only Crutchlow on his tail. That changed on lap 12 when Biaggi’s rear wheel caught some loose stones, sending them in to Crutchlow. Some of the stones flicked harmlessly off Crutchlow’s helmet but one punctured his R1’s oil cooler, leading to a leak that caused him to low side. Left all alone, Biaggi finished the race over four seconds ahead of his rivals.

Haslam finished in second to maintain a three-point lead in the championship while Corser followed shortly in third for the BMW S1000RR’s first WSBK podium.

“I’m so happy, the team has put a lot of hard work into the project not just this year but last year and sometimes it’s been difficult and frustrating,” says Corser about the historic podium finish. “But this weekend we’ve worked really hard and have been progressively getting better and better, just struggling a bit with braking, but we made a change for the second race and it made the bike easier to stop. We had the speed, our bike was as fast as anything out there, and it just took me a few laps to get used to the brakes in the second race. Thanks to all the boys at BMW, it’s been a long time coming, let’s hope it's not going to be the last one!”

The two wins were significant achievement for Aprilia, which unveiled a Max Biaggi RSV4 replica at Monza. On top of sweeping the first of three Italian rounds, Biaggi’s 50 points pushed Aprilia into the lead ahead of Suzuki in the manufacturers standings. The news was less positive for the other Italian brand, Ducati. The round marked the first time Ducati failed to score a podium result in Monza since 2000, when Troy Bayliss missed the podium with a pair of fourth place finishes.. Noriyuki Haga had the highest finish of all Ducati riders with a sixth place in Race Two, for Ducati’s worst performance in 19 years of WSBK rounds at Monza.

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